Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V3 #319

Mark, Re:

> Good thing as that would undoubtedly have been, it may have led to the
> Communist domination of Europe. The Western democracies, including Germany,
> would probably have been invaded and overrun by Stalin in the 40's or early
> 50's.

Careful, careful.  Things ain't quite that simple.  If Germany had won WW I, it
would have remained Second Reich, consisting of a bunch of local monarchies.
Maybe the influence of the parliaments would have increased, but we wouldn't
have seen a democratic monarchy like in Britain very soon.

Communism in Germany was neither very aggressive nor very important before and
during the war.  So a communist revolution from inside of Germany would have
been rather unlikely.  On the other hand, Stalin wouldn't have been militarily
able to overrun Germany before the nuclear age.  Therefore I somehow doubt your
conclusion.

So, only desirable effects of a hypothetical German victory?  Some, perhaps.
If Germany had remained a colonialist power, South Africa wouldn't have gained
the upper hand over its neighbourhood territories, so probably no apartheid.
Maybe, facing yet another superpower, Japan wouldn't have dared to start
Pacific War.

But Second Reich was a very imperialist and aggressive regime under William II.
I don't feel very comfortable with the thought that it might have persisted
after 1918.  Just claiming that it might have been a better choice than Third
Reich doesn't make it a Western democracy in the sense we think of today...

Cheers,

Bernd